'This is the end': Delia Smith, the grande dame of TV cooking claims the BBC is no longer interested in 'educating' viewers about cooking

Delia Smith has vowed never to make another television cookery programme, claiming the BBC is no longer interested in ‘educating’ viewers about cooking.

The 71-year-old grande dame of TV cooking has announced: ‘This is the end when it comes to Delia on the telly.’

She said she had been left frustrated by programme makers telling her there was no time to show her cooking techniques properly.

‘When I started, there was further education in the BBC,’ she said. ‘Now you have to entertain.

‘You have someone telling me I haven’t got time to show this, or I haven’t got time to show that.’

Asked if she would reconsider if a television company offered the right money or the right format, she said: ‘No. As soon as my Waitrose contract ended, the BBC called me up and said “what can we do?” And I said “no, thank you”.

‘I am afraid to say this is the end when it comes to Delia on the telly.’ She added that she was still passionate about teaching people to cook, but that she would do it through online tutorials in the future.

‘This is the future for me and the population. It’s miles ahead,’ the Daily Telegraph reported her as saying. Her decision comes a month after the celebrity cook – who had been the face of Waitrose for three years along with chef Heston Blumenthal – was dropped ‘by mutual agreement’ from the store’s adverts.

Mr Blumenthal, 46, owner of the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, had his contract renewed, sparking criticism that the supermarket had chosen a younger, trendier chef for the face of the upmarket chain.

Miss Smith’s retirement from television is likely to upset her countless fans, many of whom will have followed her throughout her screen career spanning more than 40 years. She remains the UK’s top cookery author, having sold more than 21million books.

'Mutual agreement': Miss Smith was dropped as the face of Waitrose along with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal sparking criticism that the supermarket had chosen a younger, trendier chef for the face of the upmarket chain

The so-called ‘Delia effect’ is famed for having a huge impact on the sale of products used in her recipes, from sea salt to cranberries.

Speaking while demonstrating a new line of baking tins at a trade show in Birmingham yesterday, Miss Smith vowed to carry on baking, saying that she would launch the Delia Online Cookery School later this month.

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She said it was aimed at people who use a computer in their kitchen and want an educational step-by-step guide to baking.

The veteran cook broke her long-term policy of refusing to advertise commercial brands when she signed a money-spinning tie-up with Waitrose three years ago.

There was speculation then that her timing may have had something to do with a leaked report from executives inside the BBC that claimed she had ‘limited appeal’ and was in the bottom tier of the corporation’s roster of presenting talent.

Part of national consciousness: Miss Smith first appeared on screens in 1970 (right) as a resident cook and was given her first show, Family Fayre, in 1973 (left) and now she is so influential that any product she recommends usually sells out within minutes

Miss Smith first appeared on screens in 1970 as a resident cook on the BBC’s Look East, and was given her first show, Family Fayre, in 1973. She is now so influential that any product she recommends usually sells out within minutes.

In 1995 she caused a cranberry shortage with the popularity of one of her Christmas recipes, and three years later, when she extolled the virtues of a particular omelette pan, the manufacturer was so inundated with orders it had to take on more staff.

Her cooking is so much a part of the national consciousness that ‘Delia’ was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a noun in 2001, after the researchers found phrases such as ‘doing a Delia’ – meaning cooking one of her dishes – had become widely used.

A ‘Delia dish’ is described in the dictionary as a recipe ‘in the style of cooking of British cookery writer Delia Smith.’